What camera?

[Venessa]

What suggestions are there for a good camera in the $200-$300 range? My parents have offered to buy me a new camera, and I want something that is versatile. I would like it to have good zoom capabilities, as well as close-up/macro. Right now I have a 4.0 mega pixel Kodak Easy Share DX 6490-it's a great camera, I would just like something with more oompf to it. My daughter takes great pics with it, so I am probably gonna give it to her.

[bolimasa]

What suggestions are there for a good camera in the $200-$300 range? My parents have offered to buy me a new camera, and I want something that is versatile. I would like it to have good zoom capabilities, as well as close-up/macro. Right now I have a 4.0 mega pixel Kodak Easy Share DX 6490-it's a great camera, I would just like something with more oompf to it. My daughter takes great pics with it, so I am probably gonna give it to her.

Look at the canon A610/ A620/ A630 series. I bought my son an A610 (5mp) last christmas. It takes pretty nice pictures. I'm not sure you can get that one but one of the others (same with more megapixels) may be in that price range.

[swanseafarm]

I would bump up to at least a 6MP camera. The Cannon, Nikon and Kodak brands are all good cameras. Just remember, don't buy based on digital zoom numbers. It is the Optical zoom numbers that are paramount to decent zooming. Digital zoom in no different than working with a zoom/enlargement filter in a software program like Adobe, and it compromises the integrity of the original image when used. Think Optical! :)

[IF-Designs]

I have the Fujifilm s7000 and I really love it. Here is an example of one up on ebay now
http://cgi.ebay.com/Fuji-FinePix-S7000-6-3-Megapixel-12-3-Mp-Camera-Plus_W0QQitemZ160069138910QQihZ006QQcategoryZ10789 8QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
you dont see alot of them up but they are great cameras. They have 2 macro settings macro and then SUPER macro where you can get practically right on top of the item to get a photo its awesome now in macro you cant use flash but thats good , in macro a flash is just usually too strong to properly light you items anyway but I use my clip lights with daylight balanced flourescent bulbs I got at home depot anyway :) I really like this camera it can also take video with sound! which is pretty cool to if you want to do lil demo videos or take quick lil video of family or what not. It has tons of settings to play with and alot of versatility for a kind of point and shoot camera just this side of an SLR lol :) you can put it in manual mode if you want which I do some times and use it more like a traditional camera but I can put it on auto too which is awesome. I just dont have the option to change lenses but they do have some screw on lense things you can get for it but I dont really use them or see a need for them really.

[Venessa]

I would bump up to at least a 6MP camera. The Cannon, Nikon and Kodak brands are all good cameras. Just remember, don't buy based on digital zoom numbers. It is the Optical zoom numbers that are paramount to decent zooming. Digital zoom in no different than working with a zoom/enlargement filter in a software program like Adobe, and it compromises the integrity of the original image when used. Think Optical! :)

Could you possibly explain the difference between digital and optical zoom for me? I was unaware that there were different types of zoom. #-o

I have the Fujifilm s7000 and I really love it. Here is an example of one up on ebay now
http://cgi.ebay.com/Fuji-FinePix-S7000-6-3-Megapixel-12-3-Mp-Camera-Plus_W0QQitemZ160069138910QQihZ006QQcategoryZ10789 8QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
you dont see alot of them up but they are great cameras. They have 2 macro settings macro and then SUPER macro where you can get practically right on top of the item to get a photo its awesome now in macro you cant use flash but thats good , in macro a flash is just usually too strong to properly light you items anyway but I use my clip lights with daylight balanced flourescent bulbs I got at home depot anyway :) I really like this camera it can also take video with sound! which is pretty cool to if you want to do lil demo videos or take quick lil video of family or what not. It has tons of settings to play with and alot of versatility for a kind of point and shoot camera just this side of an SLR lol :) you can put it in manual mode if you want which I do some times and use it more like a traditional camera but I can put it on auto too which is awesome. I just dont have the option to change lenses but they do have some screw on lense things you can get for it but I dont really use them or see a need for them really.

Wow, that does sound a lot like what I am looking for-it really seems like an all around, use it for anything type of camera. By saying you don't really see many of them, do you mean that they are hard to get a hold of, or that not many people have them?

[IF-Designs]

I just mean that I dont think many people are selling them off, so I think people are pretty happy with them when they get them. :)

and digital zoom is just like using your photoshop or other imaging program to crop into the image to get closer it it blows the pixels up ...now optical zoom uses the actual optical parts of the lense to zoom in closer to the subject so the pixels are the essentially the same size and the DPI is the same but the image is crisper and clearer.

[Venessa]

Thank you Karin!! I think that I will have to definitely check that one out.
Maybe others will chime in with their comments on that particular camera, or others...

[Janine]

I just mean that I dont think many people are selling them off, so I think people are pretty happy with them when they get them. :)

and digital zoom is just like using your photoshop or other imaging program to crop into the image to get closer it it blows the pixels up ...now optical zoom uses the actual optical parts of the lense to zoom in closer to the subject so the pixels are the essentially the same size and the DPI is the same but the image is crisper and clearer.

Thanks for the explanation, Karin! I have been wondering the difference too. I have hear good things about that Fuji.

[meadowesky]

I am in a digital photography class right now and had to compare 3 cameras for an assignment.
I chose the
Canon S2, Rebel XTI, and the Canon S3 to compare

Out of the three I chose the camera that I have now.. the S2

The perks of this wonderful camera are the things I love most
built in image stabilizer. nuff said.
the super macro mode. OMG you can touch something with the camera lens and still get a clear picture. Focuses to 0 CM!!!
the easy use of the white balance. in function mode, select white balance, point at a piece of white paper in the same light you use and hit set. And it stays that balance throughout your shoot.
The only downfall is the 4AA batteries it takes. If you use rechargable camera AA's they actually last for quite a while though.
All of my pictures are taken handheld. I dont use a tripod and get amazingly focused pics.
You can get this camera at dell for 255$ now.
Here are some sites for reviews if you are interested
www.steves-digicams.com
www.dpreview.com
www.imaging-resource.com

if you want to see some pics taken with it almost everything on my site was.